Tropical storm leaves four dead
Fay may be hurricane for Cuba, Florida
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Flooding from Tropical Storm Fay killed four people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and authorities said Saturday the storm could reach hurricane strength as it barrels toward Cuba.
Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency and said Fay threatened the state with a “major disaster.” Forecasters said Fay could bring hurricane-force winds to the Florida Keys as soon as Monday.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said that late Saturday night the storm was located about 175 miles southeast of Camaguey, Cuba. It was heading west at about 14 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph.
A man died Saturday in Haiti while trying to cross a river south of Port-au-Prince, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti’s civil protection department.
Rice fields in the Artibonite Valley, Haiti’s most fertile region, were flooded, according to reports from Radio Ginen. And Fay’s heavy winds destroyed banana crops north of the capital, Jean-Baptiste said.
In neighboring Dominican Republic, a 34-year-old woman drowned when a family tried to cross a swollen river in a car, civil defense agency director Luis Luna Paulino said. The bodies of her missing 13-year-old niece and 5-year-old nephew were found Saturday afternoon.
Fay’s path was expected to take it near the southern coast of central Cuba today and over western Cuba tonight or Monday.
Forecasters said Fay could hit the United States as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane, with winds perhaps reaching more than 100 mph.